


Story Time

by blynninja



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-20
Updated: 2015-08-20
Packaged: 2018-04-16 05:25:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4612845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blynninja/pseuds/blynninja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Yona asks for a bedtime story. Sort of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Story Time

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for chapter 90-something of the manga.
> 
> Maybe slightly AU??

The night was quiet, but it didn’t stop him keeping watch. He rarely slept more than a handful of hours anymore; might as well make himself useful.

The others were sleeping soundly, exhausted from another day of ridiculous travel and ”Happy Hungry Bunch” shenanigans. They had gone to bed a few hours ago.

At least, he thought they were all asleep.

Soft footsteps alerted him to her approach, and he looked up to find Yona rubbing her eyes.

He stayed silent as she settled herself beside him, her shoulder brushing his. 

“Trouble sleeping?” he asked finally, keeping his eyes on the horizon.

Yona shrugged, sighing.

“Bad dreams?” he asked, glancing at her. Her hair was messy and her eyelids looked heavy, but she was out here instead of in the tent with Yoon, so something was up.

Yona shook her head. “Just can’t sleep.”

“Hm. Whatever you say, Princess.”

Yona yawned then and he bumped his shoulder against hers. “Maybe you should go lay back down.”

“Nnn,” Yona replied, slightly whiny. “Tell me a story, Hak.”

He blinked, looking at her. “You want me to tell you a bedtime story?”

Yona nodded once, quickly, as she replied, “Your stories put me to sleep.”

“You’re saying I bore you to sleep,” he interpreted slowly, slightly annoyed.

“No,” Yona replied quietly. “I meant that you have a good storytelling voice. It’s calming. I like listening to you.”

He was quiet for a minute, not sure how to reply to that.

“Tell me about growing up in Fuuga,” Yona suggested, giving him a small smile. “It seemed like a nice place.”

Hak smirked. “Not when you have the old man for a grandfather.”

Yona elbowed him in the ribs, chiding, “Mundok is wonderful.”

“Of course he’s good to you. You’re the _princess_ ,” Hak replied, trying to keep a straight face.

“Hak!” Yona whined, pouting at him. “Be serious. How did you become the Thunder Beast?”

“Eh?” he asked, startled.

“I know you were young, and Mundok trained you, but I don’t actually know how you got the nickname, or why you were so young when you became the Wind Tribe general. Tell me about that.”

There was something soft in her gaze as she looked up at him, and Hak blinked, wondering where to begin.

“I know you beat Geun-Tae when you were 13,” Yona said, and he frowned. “Father told me. But that was all he would tell me, that you were amazing and that Guen-Tae was shocked.”

Frankly, Hak was surprised King Il had told her that much.

“Amazing, huh?” he asked, grinning, and Yona gave him a look.

“His words, not mine.”

But there was a hint of a blush on her face.

“Uh-huh. Sure.”

“Are you going to tell me about it or not?” Yona asked, crossing her arms.

Hak smiled.

“I wasn’t kidding when I told you I’d have you practice shooting arrows 200 times,” he started. “That was what Mundok had all of us do. When we could do it as quickly as he wanted, we could move on to something else. I think I was the fastest at it.”

“What did it take you, two days?” Yona snorted, and Hak bopped her on the head.

“More like two months,” he said, and Yona glanced up at him, curious.

“When we were good enough with a bow, we could move on to swords. He always made us try to beat him first, and when we couldn’t, he’d have us practice against each other until we got better.”

“Did you have to be able to beat him to move on to something else?” Yona asked quietly, resting her chin on her knees.

“I thought I was the one telling the story,” Hak said with a grin, but Yona didn’t respond, and he continued, “Yes. We had to be able to get past him if we wanted to be official warriors.”

“And then you became General,” Yona whispered, and he knew she was remembering the day he’d finally accepted King Il’s request.

“Yeah. Kind of stupid of me,” he joked, and Yona glanced up at him, frowning.

“Why?”

“I got stuck guarding a cranky princess,” he replied easily, sighing in mock exasperation.

Yona huffed, but otherwise stayed silent, and he wondered if she was just that tired.

Then she sat up straight, looking directly at him, and his heart skipped a beat at the look in her eye.

“You were the youngest general in a long time. That’s something to be proud of!”

He blinked, and Yona’s face flushed a little as she said, “I didn’t mean to say that so harshly. I’m sorry.”

Her shoulders dropped a little, and Hak rolled his eyes before ruffling her hair.

“I know what you meant,” he said quietly, once again surprised by his princess.

Yona sighed, and then requested, “Tell me about being Raijyuu.”

“There’s not much to tell. You’ve seen me fight,” he shrugged.

“You don’t need to be so modest with me,” Yona said softly, and he glanced at her.

“Yes, I’ve seen you fight. But I don’t know what put that spirit inside of you. I don’t know what makes you seem to enjoy fighting so much. You get this look in your eyes and you’re so fast, too fast, and no one can touch you, and there’s something terrifying about it, but it’s also amazing to watch. There’s a beauty to the way you fight, and I don’t know how you do it.”

Hak tilted his head, watching her carefully. He had never had anyone call him terrifying and beautiful in the same breath, but she had dared to, and it sat in his chest like a warm weight.

“Soo-won told me once that if he ever fought you seriously, he would lose. Is that because Mundok trained you so well, or some other reason?” she asked, and Hak blinked.

It was true, Soo-won had never beaten him at training, and he had wounded the usurper the night they’d fled the castle. Had that fight continued, he probably could have killed Soo-won. Probably _would_ have.

And in Sensui, he had nearly killed others in his blind rage trying to get to Soo-won.

He sighed heavily, rubbing absently at the wound on his arm as he replied, “Before, I would have said it was because I was the better warrior. But now…”

He clenched his jaw, trying to hold in the anger.

Yona’s hand landed on his, squeezing gently.

He froze, turning to look at her.

“I understand,” she said softly, blinking away tears.

He blinked at her, wondering just what it was she understood, as she continued, “That night, Kye-sook called you the heart of Hiryuu Castle, and he was right.”

Her fingers tightened on his wrist and he could only stare at her as she kept talking.

“You held the castle together, even more than my father did. You were always watching, always ready to offer an opinion or a helping hand. When Soo-won took over and I left, the heart of Hiryuu Castle came with me.”

She paused, and then said, “You want Soo-won to pay for what he did because you’re you, you’re Raijyuu, and you protect with everything you have. When the people and places you love are threatened, it takes a piece of your heart and makes you fight even harder to make it right.”

Hak blinked again, stunned. 

When had she gotten so observant?

And she never called him by his nickname. That was surprising.

And the way she said it!

There was no awe or fear in her voice, just fact, and it was a nice change from the way most people said it, like they were afraid of him.

Even after all he’d done lately, _she_ wasn’t afraid of him.

To her, he was just him, just Hak, and he had to bite his tongue to keep from saying something snarky.

“When did you get so smart?” slipped out anyway, and Yona laughed a little.

“Maybe I’ve been spending too much time with Yoon,” she said with a smile.

Hak snorted. “Better the boy genius than Droopy Eyes.”

She smacked his shoulder. “Jae-ha isn’t that bad.”

Hak scoffed. “Sure.”

“You just don’t like that he’s so nice to me,” Yona muttered, and he paused, thinking that over.

“He’s _too_ nice,” he countered eventually, giving her a look.

“There’s no such thing as ‘too nice’,” Yona huffed back. “And it’s better than making fun of me all the time.”

Hak shrugged. “It’s in the job description: _annoy princess as often as possible_.”

Yona sighed, shifting closer to him, and he froze.

“You’re also supposed to protect me.”

There was something funny in her voice that he couldn’t place, and when her head landed on his shoulder a little while later and her breathing told him she was asleep, he smiled.

“Falling in love wasn’t in the description,” he mumbled, watching her face relax into a smile and smiling himself.

**Author's Note:**

> I have absolutely no evidence that Hak is a good storyteller. I just made that up because I needed a cutesy moment. But I feel like spending so much time together would make Yona used to his voice, you know? Idk.
> 
> I know that the manga says Hak is the “trump card” but the anime calls him the “heart” and I like that better. I feel like he was always paying attention to things and would have helped out when needed, even without being asked. Idk. Just an impression.
> 
> This started out as two separate ideas, and then I decided to combine them into a bigger piece.
> 
> I know jumping between "Thunder Beast" and "Raijyuu" is a little weird, but the usages made sense in my head, okay?


End file.
